about me

Hello. I’m Anthony Mattke, aka Tony. I’m a network engineer / geek located amidst the endless cornfields in north central Indiana. I’m a husband, father to three cats and a dog, and I hope to one day have super powers. Seriously.

I’ve been working on networks since 1999, and have had a pretty broad experience. I’ve worked for ISPs, networking manufacturers, data centers, consulted on government networking projects, financial institutions, but most recently I’ve been working on enterprise data centers and networks. I’m not big on certifications, but I current maintain my CCNP from Cisco, and will hopefully someday seriously consider working towards my CCIE. In addition, and thanks to, writing this blog I have been a guest author / podcaster on Packet Pushers, a delegate for several Tech Field Day events, a repeated Cisco Champion, and most recently an independent technical writer for Information Week’s Network Computing. Some day my bucket list includes writing a book, but I think that is down the road a ways.

I made the switch to Mac back in 2008, but I’m still a Linux advocate. I’ve been using it since 1994 when I first installed Slackware. Luckily I get to keep those memories alive by administrating a few Linux boxes here and there, including of course this server. These days I typically run Ubuntu for the ease of apt package management, at least compared to what I remember from the old days of Slackware.

I have an addiction when it comes to hobbies… I think it all comes back to my desire to learn and discover. Once I get hooked on something I can’t stop researching and exploring the topic. Some of my other hobbies include photography – aka not using my camera, watch collecting, biking – aka storing them in the garage, woodworking – buying tools, saving babies from trees, not bowling, being so scared to fly my rc helicopter that I sold it, amateur pyrotechnics, craft beer, collecting useless crap, video gaming, rescuing kittens from fires, and pistol/rifle collecting along with target shooting. I also used to keep fresh water cichlids, but sold my tank a few years ago.

If you wish to have a chat, try the contact form. If you’re impatient send me a tweet, or you can usually find me idling in #cisco and #packetpushers on Freenode…